C# 5.0 Programmer's Reference

Chapter 20 Networking

What’s in This Chapter

• Networking overview
• Uploading and downloading data
• Getting remote file information with FTP
• Sending e-mail and text messages

Wrox.com Downloads for This Chapter

Please note that all the code examples for this chapter are available as a part of this chapter’s code download on the book’s website at www.wrox.com/go/csharp5programmersref on the Download Code tab.

Networking is a complicated topic. Understanding all the protocols, addresses, routing, data layers, network hardware, and everything else that goes into building a network is a difficult task and outside the scope of this book.

Fortunately, most programs use only a few main networking techniques such as:

• Upload a file
• Download a file
• Get information about a file
• Get a directory listing
• Post information to a form
• Send e-mail

Rather than trying to cover all there is to know about network programming in detail, this chapter explains how to perform these common chores.

If you want to get into network programming, you should look for a book that focuses on just that. If you search your favorite online bookstore for C# Networking, you should find a few good choices. You can also look at the following articles.

• “Network Programming in the .NET Framework” msdn.microsoft.com/library/4as0wz7t.aspx
• “An Introduction to Socket Programming in .NET Using C#” www.codeproject.com/Articles/10649/An-Introduction-to-Socket-Programming-in-NET-using
• “Network Programming Samples” msdn.microsoft.com/library/vstudio/ee890485.aspx ...